They Would Be 'Okay'
by ShesGrace
Summary: Henry should had thought about the implications of being a sidekick. It wasn't all fun and glory and fame. It was hard. Taxing mentally and physically.


Nobody said being Kid Danger would be easy. In hindsight, Henry probably should have thought about what being a superhero's sidekick really meant before accepting the offer. The appeal of being famous overwhelming common sense that _danger_ would be part of the job. Irony apparent in the name itself. He was thirteen when it started. Barely old enough to know better. Still believing in the good of people—unaware of what was to come in the next few years—unaware of the mental strain that came tandem with the physical. And Henry should have known.

Being a superhero wasn't easy. Ray had lived his life from the moment he was hit with the densitizer training to be a hero. Henry was an ordinary kid who just happened to be at the right time and right place. It never really occurred to him just how dangerous the job could be, because well…Captain Man never got hurt. There were never any stories of his recovery in the hospital. Never any blood to be seen in his fights. Never a bruise marring that infamous face. So injuries never crossed Henry's mind when he accepted the position. He learned pretty quickly that pain was part of the job.

The first time Henry broke a bone was in his third week of being Captain Man's sidekick. Looking back he can't believe he made it that far. Being an unexperienced fighter thrown into a world only people dreamed of was difficult to say the least. He had to learn to fight on the job. Afterschool practice at night in the Man Cave with Ray's private instructors, early morning workouts, and lifting weights became routine-not to mention the on the job action. Henry was sore. And tired. And struggling to keep up with his studies, social life, and family. True—nobody said it'd be easy, but that didn't mean it was impossible. And Henry liked a challenge.

The Sonic Screamer was a mediocre villain at best. His plans usually failed. His goons were dumb. His specialty? A sonic screech amplified by a special microphone that allowed him to tap into different frequencies to break anything from glass to concrete. If it weren't for Henry and Ray's special headphones courtesy of Schwoz, they would have been down for the count very early on in the game. It wasn't even as if The Sonic Screamer was a good fighter, he just was able to use his ability to make fighting extremely_ tedious_. Kid Danger and Captain Man hadn't fought together long enough to communicate without words, and Henry hadn't yet obtained hypermobility. So he couldn't tell what Captain Man was trying to tell him, and he couldn't have moved fast enough even if he wasn't trying to decipher Captain Man's weird hand signals. Those hand signals looked ridiculous! How was Kid Danger supposed to know that a butterfly followed by_….was that? A claw?_ Meant that "yo the Sonic Screamer is screaming and his stupid frequency is making the wall behind you crack and please stop looking at me like that and get out of the way because I'm too far to reach you in time and the walls about to fall on you and there's the wall"?

The pain didn't really register at first. Kid Danger was running on adrenaline. The fight with SS still going strong. His trapped arm was nothing more than a nuisance at this point because he couldn't help Captain Man if his arm was trapped beneath a wall. Turned out though that Captain Man didn't need his help. He was more than capable of taking down the Sonic Screamer seeing red from Kid Danger's entrapment. Soon enough the authorities had him in custody and Kid Danger and Captain Man were back on their way to the Man Cave.

Ray had asked if Henry was okay. Henry had said he was okay. Henry wasn't okay. Because the fact of the matter is-he isn't Captain Man. He isn't indestructible. Concrete walls hurt when they crush your arm. But Henry was a superhero. Henry wasn't weak. Henry would stay strong. Henry would hide it.

And hide is what Henry did for years. For years he would practice after school with private fighting instructors, do morning workouts, go to school, juggle a social life and crime fighting and family and everything in between. For years he would hide behind forced smiles and laughs and would duck away from being hugged by Charlotte or Jasper or his mother that week because he didn't want them to find out he was hiding a broken rib or three. For years he would hide the bruises on his face with carefully applied makeup. For years he would shrug off the pain, gritting his teeth with every punch, every kick, every throw, because he was a hero and that's what heroes do.

It shouldn't have surprised Henry to learn that Charlotte occasionally noticed he was hiding something. She was the first person to discover his secret. The first person to see the Man Cave. Smart enough to convince Ray to let her keep her memory and have her work for him. Smart enough to understand Schwoz's inventions and odd scientific rambling. So Henry really should have not been surprised when Charlotte cornered him one night after a run-in with The Toddler and his goons to see if he was okay.

"I saw you fall off the balcony to the first floor, Hen. You were on the fourth! There's no way you're not hurting!" She was trying to keep her voice down, vaguely aware somewhere in the back of her mind that a school hallway was not the most appropriate place to be discussing this matter. But Henry had been squirming uncomfortably in his seat all class, and Charlotte had noticed the way his face scrunched up in pain when he had to twist to reach into his back pack. And Charlotte had been able to see everything that happened in last night's fight thanks to new cameras installed in Captain Man and Kid Danger's masks.

"Relax, Char. I'm Kid Danger. Kid Danger is used to stuff like that. Don't worry." Henry tried to shrug off her implications that he was incapable of looking after himself. This was his fourth year as Captain Man's sidekick. He could handle a broken rib, or three.

"That's not something anyone should ever be used to, Henry!" Charlotte scream-whispered exasperated at her best friend, "You're not indestructible like Ray. You could have broken something or even be dead from a fall that high. At least let Schwoz look you over."

Henry rose his hands in surrender "Alright, alright-I'll get Schwoz to take a look. Just don't pester anyone else about this. No need to get them all worked up when I'm fine."

"Hen—"Charlotte started.

"Please, Char? Just this once?" Henry begged clasping his hands, "You know how stressed Ray is right now with City Hall cutting our budget again. He doesn't need to worry about me too."

Damn. He broke out the puppy eyes. "….okay. Fine. Just this once!"

Henry beamed, "Thanks, Char. I owe you. You're the best!"

Schwoz never saw Henry. He never did. It was an unspoken agreement between the Man Team that Henry was checked over after every fight. It was an agreement that Gooch and Ray had arranged when Henry accepted the job, and the task of checking Henry after his fights had been passed onto Schwoz when Gooch disappeared. Schwoz never got the memo. Henry never bothered to tell him.

It wasn't even the broken bones or the bruises or the aching muscles Henry accumulated in his work as Kid Danger that got to him. It was the responsibility. The mental strain. The late nights and early mornings. The few hours of sleep plagued by nightmares or what if's. What if he couldn't save them in time? What if he accidentally killed someone? What if someone found out his identity and targeted his family to get to him? What if, what if, what if?

And that was the hardest part. No therapist could help with his paranoia that someone was out to get him. No doctor could prescribe medication to combat the anxiety and wariness that came from constantly having to be alert and on guard. No counselor could talk him through the PTSD, the panic attacks, the dark days when he felt like curling up and crying. Who could understand the pain of keeping a secret that was killing him mentally more than it was damaging him physically?

Henry Hart was a superhero. Henry Hart was Kid Danger. Superheroes did not get hurt. Superheroes were not weak. Kid Danger was not weak. He refused to be weak. So he suffered in silence hoping the smiles and forced laughs didn't give him away.

And it worked for the most part. Kid Danger may always be in the spotlight, but Henry Hart was next to invisible outside of the costume. No one really took notice if he had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep trying to avoid the nightmares that were sure to greet his eyelids. High school kids always had eye bags for one reason or another. Why would anyone be suspicious of Henry's? His family wasn't suspicious either. After years of half-assed excuses, sneaking out, and lying to his parents to hide his identity Henry realized just how little they noticed about him. So of course his parents weren't suspicious when Henry started to sleep on the couch more. Teenagers slept in weird places sometimes. This was just one of those teenage things, right? Why else would Henry start sleeping on the couch instead of his ungodly comfortable bed upstairs? Surely not because of a lingering sub-conscious need to protect his family and the couch had the best view of both doors. But that's why he did it. The same reason he now walked around the entire perimeter of a building before entering, the same reason he notified Ray the minute he saw something even remotely out of place-just to be safe.

Besides Charlotte's occasional Pestering after a big fight, the only person who ever seemed to notice if anything was 'wrong' with Henry was Ray. Captain Man and Kid Danger had a bond unlike anyone else. They had to trust each other-totally and completely. They and to be able to communicate with a look. They had to fight flawlessly together, know each-other inside and out. Because lives were on the line every day. This wasn't a game.

Ray had noticed. Of course he noticed. He himself was familiar first hand with the harsh realities of being one of Swellview's protectors. He had been spiraling down the self-destructive path of doubt and paranoia years ago. He may not have been as socially adapt as he should have been if his dad hadn't pulled him out of school so young, but Ray had enough social skills to read the subtle signs Henry showed. So he saw the look in Henry's eyes when he spaced out at the couch in the Man Cave, and instead of arguing with Henry to pay attention like Charlotte and Jasper did, He strayed the conversation away from the topic at hand because Henry was clearly reliving a nightmare, and this conversation wasn't helping. And if Ray led him away from the couch for a minute for one of their classic playful bantering sessions to squeeze Henry's shoulders in a subtle act of comfort no one said anything.

There were days when Ray felt guilty for bringing Henry into this world. Sure Kid Danger helped him out of plenty of situations, but that didn't change the fact that Captain Man could get the job done on his own. And it didn't change the fact that Ray had selfishly brought a child into his lonely, dangerous world. Ray would protect him the best he could, because Henry was still just a kid. A kid who had now seen more than his fair share of hardships. A kid who felt like he had to stay strong denying the fact that he was only human. A kid who Ray saw as the younger brother he never had and didn't know he wanted. The only family Ray now had.

Ray had vowed to protect him. That meant both physically and mentally. That meant being each other's support system. That meant giving Henry the occasional mental health day to hang around in the Man Cave, letting the cops handle whatever sad excuse for a villain popped up. That meant letting Kid Danger take out his frustrations a little too much on a bad guy or on himself in a friendly spar. And when Kid Danger apologized with that horrible look in his eyes that Ray never wanted to see again as long as he may live, Ray would calmly let him know that he was okay. Weather he was talking about Henry or himself was never very clear.

It was during one of these friendly spars that Henry started to see what his brain tricked him into seeing. Captain Man was no longer a hero. He was the Twister who scrambled his family's memories until they didn't know who he was and beat them senselessly while they begged for someone to help. Anyone to help. A fight that had yet to happen anywhere but in his dreams. Except lack of sleep was catching up to him, and the blue of Ray's suit looked a lot like the blue of the Twister's gloves and suddenly Ray wasn't there until he was—gripping Kid Danger's shoulders, whispering reassurances that he was okay. Henry was okay. Ray was okay. They were safe.

It made Henry realize that Ray was only saying his famous catchphrase because he was saying "I'm okay" to convince himself. The life of a superhero was lonely. Full of secrets and half-formed friendships because getting close to someone meant putting them in danger too and superheroes saved people not endangered them. So Ray, although Captain Man had never needed one before, hunted for a sidekick. Hunted for someone to share in his lonely life. Hunted for somebody to understand the feeling of loneliness even surrounded by thousands of adoring fans. And it was wrong and selfish and childish. But they had each other. They had each other.

Ray would be there to snap Henry out of the mind games. Henry would be there to stop Ray from looking for ways to become destructible again. They would be there for each other after a particularly nasty fight while Henry iced his wrist and they watched Disney movies late into the night to rid the ghosts that haunted them. Ray would be there for Henry during finals week, quizzing him with flashcards of facts he never learned himself. Henry would be there to act as Ray's adopted son to impress an ex-girlfriend. They would be there for each other when a mission failed and they were left with more questions than answers. They were in this together. Sometimes that was the only thing that mattered. The only thing that helped. And that had to be okay. It was okay. They were okay.


End file.
